Coaxial cable is being used ever more extensively in areas such as audio, video, data transmission, and microwave circuits. Coaxial cables can be damaged due to manufacturing errors, mishandling or accident so that the center conductor or ground conductor or both are broken or are shorted together. When a problem occurs suggesting that a cable may be defective, the initial approach is for a person to connect the center conductor to the ground conductor or either of them to the like conductor of an associated cable and then go to the other end of the cable and perform a continuity check. The person involved is usually highly skilled, such as an electrician or technician, so the cost of troubleshooting in this manner can be quite expensive. In addition, even if a fault is detected in this manner, it is not known in which of the conductors the fault has occurred unless a second or even third test is made; each test requires the tester to travel back and forth between the distant ends of the cable. For example, a discontinuity in test of a center conductor to ground conductor of a single cable indicates there is a fault in one of these conductors. To determine which of the conductors has the fault, a connection is made between the center conductor of the bad cable and another cable and a continuity check is made. If the test shows a fault then it can be determined that the center conductor of the first cable is defective; if not, the defect is in the ground conductor of the first cable and this is confirmed by connecting the ground conductors of the two cables and finding continuity. If the ground and center conductors are both defective, then the testing becomes even more complex and time consuming. One attempt to automate the testing uses an electronic device which is quite large and complex to use, in the nature of an oscilloscope and costs thousands of dollars. Because of its size and cost, it is not practical to supply the cable installers with such devices in order to prevent installation of defective cable. Rather, these devices are more often used to detect faults when a problem arises after installation.